Lysten vs Metacast
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Lysten
Easily discover and listen to podcasts with a privacy-focused player. Enjoy features like offline listening, interactive widgets, and seamless sharing with friends. Syncs via iCloud for a personal experience.
- Privacy-focused design
- iCloud sync for progress
- Offline episode downloads
- Interactive widgets
- Sleep timer
- Adjustable playback speed
- Spotlight search indexing
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Start listening in seconds — search for any show, follow it, and get a clean list of episodes ready to play. Share episodes and shows with anyone, whether or not they have the app. iPhone and iPad users get an App Clip that drops them straight into playback. Tap the share button to invite your friends and loved ones. Lysten is a lightweight podcast player. Sign in with your email to keep your followed shows, episodes, and listening progress in sync across all your devices — iPhone, iPad, and CarPlay. Features: - Sync your library and listening progress across devices with a simple email sign-in - Interactive widgets showing your feed and unfinished episodes — catch up where you left off with a tap - Sidebar on iPad with cover art and grouped sections - CarPlay support, including a Continue Listening carousel - Download episodes to listen offline — long press an episode and select Download - Sleep timer, set, enjoy & sleep - Adjustable playback speed - Podcasts and episodes indexed in Spotlight - SharePlay support — listen to episodes with friends and family - Extremely lightweight If you run into any trouble or have any questions, please reach out: - E-mail: support@ambi.se - X (Twitter): @ambiApps - Mastodon: @ambiApps@mastodon.social Privacy policy: https://ambi.se/privacy Terms of use: https://ambi.se/terms
Metacast
This app makes podcasts searchable and skimmable, allowing you to find specific quotes and insights in seconds. Easily bookmark, organize, and share key takeaways, and switch between reading transcripts and listening to audio.
- Searchable podcast transcripts
- Bookmark key takeaways
- Switch between audio and text
- Organize and share insights
- Skip intros and ads
- Learn via reading or listening
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Remember that one quote from a podcast last week? We help you find it in seconds. Metacast makes every podcast searchable, skimmable, and easy to reference, so you can learn, retain, and share ideas effortlessly. - Find insights, instantly. Search any podcast and jump straight to what matters to you. - Never forget a great idea. Bookmark key takeaways. Easily find them later. - Read or listen. It’s your choice. Seamlessly switch between reading the transcript and listening to audio. - Save, organize, share. Capture podcast wisdom, copy to your notes, and share insights with a tap. - Skip the fluff. No more scrubbing through endless intros or ads. Go straight to the good stuff. - Learn your own way. Get information the way that works best for you: read, listen, or just skim. Metacast is a fully bootstrapped company with no venture funding, so we can focus on the user experience. We build the app together with our users and publish weekly updates on our podcast Metacast: Behind the Scenes. Privacy Policy: https://metacast.app/privacy-policy Terms of Use: https://metacast.app/terms
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Metacast at 4.8 against Lysten's 4.4. Metacast also leads on update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 2 months) and review sentiment (92% vs 80%). On price, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Lysten sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month and Metacast sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Metacast holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 10 and 17 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 80% of Lysten's written reviews are positive against 92% of Metacast's.
Lysten ships an update every 2 months, Metacast every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on August 16, 2026 and September 18, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Lysten | Metacast |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (10 ratings) | 4.8 (17 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 80.0% of reviews | 92.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 10 | 17 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 44 MB | 88 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Ambi Studio AB | Metacast Inc |
Customer experience
Lysten
Metacast
In-app purchases
Lysten
- Lysten+3 Days trial$1.991 Month
- Lysten+ Yearly7 Days trial$19.991 Year
Metacast
- Premium14 Days trial$1.991 Month
- Premium14 Days trial$19.991 Year
